The increase in screen exposure during COVID-19 lockdowns may be linked to worse sleep quality.
A study using data from Italy – during a 2-month lockdown in 2020 which required the general population to stay at home – reported a ‘dramatic increase in the use of the internet and electronic devices’ related to multiple factors including: increased use of video calls replacing in-person meetings; many more people working from home; and people trying to ‘compensate for limited social interaction and fill u new free time’.
The study, reported in the journal Sleep, involved surveys to evaluate sleep quality with 2,123 participants during the third and seventh weeks of the lockdown.
The study found a decline in sleep quality for people who increased their screen time exposure in the 2 hours before bed; in contrast, those who reduced screen time in those 2 hours reported an improvement in sleep quality.
Lead author Professor Michele Ferrara summarised: ‘Respondents who increased screen time (35.4% of participants) reported decreased sleep quality, exacerbated insomnia symptoms, reduced sleep duration, prolonged sleep onset latency and delayed bedtime and rising time.
‘Conversely, respondents reporting decreased screen exposure (7.1%) exhibited improved sleep quality and insomnia symptoms.’
Limitations of the study included: the population sample had a higher prevalence of women and young people and did not include adolescents; it did not measure how large the increase or decrease was for each participant; and scientists could not assess the impact of different types of electronic devices.
However, Professor Ferrara told medicalnewstoday.com: ‘The evidence of a strong relationship between screen habits and the time course of sleep disturbances during the lockdown suggests raising public awareness about the risks of evening exposure to electronic devices could be crucial to preserve general sleep health.
‘This applies to both the ongoing pandemic and the future, as technologies will find more and more space in our daily routine.’
